MARCH OF THE TITANS - A HISTORY OF THE WHITE RACE
CHAPTER 39 : THE DOOMED EMPIRE - AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY
The histories of Austria and Hungary have been intertwined for nearly 1900 years: first as part of the Roman Empire, then both invaded by successive waves of Asiatic Nonwhite invaders; then united as the Austro-Hungarian Empire; and then as German satellites during the Second World War. Both nations have dramatically influenced the course of events in Europe, and some of the most important racial battles which kept the Huns, Avars and Ottomans from destroying Europe, were fought on Austrian and Hungarian soil. No overview of White history can then afford not to review the progress of these nations.
PRE-EMPIRE AUSTRIA
ANCIENT AUSTRIA - SITE OF HALSTATT AND URNFELD CULTURES
Austria was the site of not only an Old European culture which left scattered megalithic monuments in the country, but also some of the most famous early iron age sites in Europe: excavations at Hallstatt near Salzburg have produced some of the best preserved early Indo-European artifacts - an intricate wagon being the most famous, although pottery and other items have also been recovered, all dating from before 1000 BC.
As a result of the place in which they were found, these artifacts are known generally as the Hallstatt Culture. Similarly, other early Indo-European finds in the region have become known as the Urnfeld Culture - the existence of many grave sites containing urns and intricate pottery giving rise to this name.
ROMAN OCCUPATION
The Celtic tribes occupying the area now know as Austria were quickly overrun in 15 BC by the expanding Romans. Recognizing the region as holding the natural defenses to northern Italy, the Romans built a number of important forts and towns in Austria, some of which have survived to become modern day Austrian towns.
GERMANIC INVASIONS AFTER ROMAN DECLINE
The Romans never managed to conquer the Germanic tribes lying to the north of Austria, and by the time of the decline of the Romans, these Germanic tribes had started invading Austria as well, starting around the year 166 AD.
The last Roman frontier outposts collapsed by the 4th Century AD, and the entire region was taken over by Germanics from the north.
Thereafter followed a period of traditional Germanic tribalism, with each region having its own king, often at war with one another.
CHARLEMAGNE AND THE EASTERN MARK
During the 8th Century, the Frankish King Charlemagne conquered the region, Christianized it at sword point and created military bases in the eastern regions to serve as a buttress against the invading Asiatics whom he had defeated in their attempt to overrun White Europe.
OTTO I FOUNDS AUSTRIA 955 AD
When the Asiatic Magyars were defeated by the German king, Otto I, at the Battle of the Lechfeld in 955 AD, the German monarch created a new formal government in Charlemagne's Ostmark. In this way the country of Austria began to take form. In addition to this, Otto I was also named by the Pope as Emperor of the refounded Holy Roman Empire in the same year.
Otto I (912-973 AD), the founder of Austria: He defeated the Nonwhite Asiatic Magyar invasion at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 AD, and thereafter created a formal government in the region now known as Austria. Otto's other exploits were legion - in 951 AD he marched to Italy to assist Adelaide, the widowed Queen of Lombardy, against a usurper, one Berengar II. Otto defeated Berengar and married Adelaide, thereby becoming ruler of northern Italy. When he returned to Germany, he crushed a rebellion of nobles led by his son Liudolf, and halted a Hungarian invasion in 955 AD. In 962 AD he was crowned Holy Roman emperor - but the next year he deposed Pope John XII and had Leo VIII elected in his stead. His other son - a faithful one - married Theophano, daughter of the Byzantine emperor Romanus II.
THE HOUSES OF BABENBURG AND HABSBURG
Under the rule of two German noble houses, the Babenburgs and the Habsburgs, the Austrian Empire gradually increased in size and improved its infrastructure: although a period of unrest followed the death of the last Babenburg, this was halted by the first Habsburg king, Rudolf I, who, after defeating Bohemian forces attempting to annex the country, established the Habsburg dynasty which was to dominate Austrian history until its collapse in 1919.
By the mid 1550s, the Habsburg Empire had in fact grown so large in territorial terms, that it included Spain. It was then divided into two administrative parts - a Spanish and Austrian branch under separate Habsburg rulers.
THE THIRTY YEARS WAR - HOUSE OF HABSBURG DEFEATED
The spread of the Protestant rebellion against Catholicism spread to the Austrian Empire. In 1618 a Protestant rebellion became a European wide conflict known as the Thirty Years' War.
This conflict was fought mainly on German soil, after a Catholic king of Austria had been deposed by Protestant rebels. A third of all of Germany's population was killed in this battle between Catholic and Protestant. Ultimately the House of Habsburg were defeated at the end of the Thirty Years' War, and by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, their centralized control of the Empire was reduced to a loose union of independent states.
A Great White Hero: Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736). Although always thought of as an Austrian general, he was in fact born in Paris of French parents. His mother was however exiled by the French King Louis XIV, and Eugene renounced his French citizenship and joined the Austrian army. He took part in many intercontinental European wars, notably against the armies of Louis XIV, but it was his continual victories against the Nonwhite Turks that brought him his greatest fame. In 1697, as commander of the Austrian army in Hungary, he utterly defeated the Nonwhites at the Battle of Senta. In 1716 he again led an army - this time consisting of Hungarians - against the Turks and defeated them at the battles of Peterwardein, Timisoara and Belgrade. In 1781 he led a decisive rout of the Nonwhite armies which forced the Turks back even further south down the Balkans.
THE OTTOMAN INVASION
No sooner was the Thirty Years War ended, then the Nonwhite Turkish Ottomans invaded from the south east, pushing up from their bridgehead in the Balkans. Vienna itself was besieged by the Turks in 1683 - a combined White army of Austrians, Germans and Poles united and smashed the Nonwhite army, forcing it to retreat south back into the Balkans. Pursuing the Ottomans led to the Austrians occupying the territory later to become known as Hungary.
WARS AND NAPOLEON
Thereafter followed a series of internal wars and conflicts with neighbors which culminated in the Seven Years War fought from 1756 to 1763, as a result of which Austria lost important provinces (Silesia and Bohemia) to the German state of Prussia.
From 1792 to 1815, Austria was dragged into the general European conflict which started with the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Wars.
Invaded by Napoleon's armies, Austria lost is sovereignty and in 1806, Napoleon formally abolished the Holy Roman Empire. Rising in rebellion, Austria was however to form part of the combined anti-Napoleonic forces which finally defeated the French imperialist adventure, and the country gained considerable prestige as a result.
Following Napoleon's defeat and exile in 1814, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 re-established the House of Habsburg and its territories.
METTERNICH BOLSTERS THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE
After the Napoleonic Wars, Austria was dominated by its king appointed chancellor, Prince Clemens von Metternich, who, by a combination of conflict and diplomacy, made the Austrian Habsburg Empire the leading power on the continent. A stern autocrat, Metternich was taken by surprise by the 1848 rebellions in Europe, which forced many Royal houses to allow limited constitutional and social reforms. Metternich resigned in the face of a peasant's revolt in Vienna, and the king introduced a parliamentary government. This was however abolished shortly afterwards by the king, who opposed any form of elected government.
Prince Clemens von Metternich (1773-1859), a fine Nordic Austrian. A skilled diplomat, he played a major role in creating the coalition which led to the final downfall of Napoleon, and was a major player at the Congress of Vienna. Metternich dominated European politics as the avowed champion of conservatism, bitterly opposing the pro-democratic reforms that were gaining ground on that continent in Napoleon's wake. Taken unaware by the revolutions of 1848, he was forced to resign.
UNION WITH HUNGARY - 1866
However, after 1848, Austria suffered several territorial losses. The Hungarians, who had been under Austrian rule since the end of the Ottoman invasion declared themselves independent. Defeated in the Seven Weeks' War (1866) with Prussia, Austria was weakened and forced to compromise with the Hungarians. In terms of this compromise, the two countries agreed to share a common monarch, but retained separate constitutions, governments and languages - creating the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
ANCIENT HUNGARY
The territory known today as Hungary was first occupied by Old European peoples. They were however some of the first to be displaced by the Indo-European invaders of the 4th millennium BC, and the region eventually became settled by the Slavic Indo-European tribes.
The latter tribes formed the basis of the population in that country, although they have been subjected to a number of other racial and sub-racial influences over the centuries.
Under the Indo-European Slavic rule, the territory was settled agriculturally, as it had been by the Old European peoples before.
This primarily agricultural way of life did not lead to the creation of any massive urban centers on the scale of Western Europe, and did also not create a professional warrior class, something that the Slavs were soon to regret.
ROMAN OCCUPATION - EASTERN LIMITS OF EMPIRE
Disorganized, the Slavic peoples in Hungary were easily overrun by the Romans, who incorporated them into the eastern European province of Pannonia. Sited as it was at the furthermost point east of the continental Roman Empire, the province of Pannonia was always the first to bear the brunt of all invasions: it was the first to fall to the Germanic tribes - the first to fall to the Asiatic invasion of Atilla the Hun, the first to be reoccupied by Germanics after the Huns left Europe, and the first to be invaded by the Asian Avars.
ROMAN COLLAPSE - PERIOD OF INSTABILITY
The collapse of the Roman Empire left the peoples of Hungary more or less to its own devices. By this time it was a mish mash of contesting Slavic tribes with small pockets of Asiatics, leftovers from the Hunnish and Avar invasions, scattered throughout the land.
After the death of Atilla the Hun, the Germans reoccupied the area, only to be expelled again, in the 5th Century, by the Asiatic Avars, whose power was eventually smashed by the Frankish King Charlemagne. The remainder of the Avars were virtually exterminated by the Slavic Moravians who proceeded to seize the north eastern parts of Hungary.
The rest of the territory was occupied by Charlemagne who further extended his series of buffer states against the Asiatic invaders, a process which was completed by 797.
MAGYAR INVASION - 896 AD
In 896 AD, the Magyars - a mixed race of mainly Asiatic sub-racial types - invaded Europe. In quick succession they conquered Moravia, raided Italy and made incursions into Germany. The Magyars ranged over central Europe for more than half a century. In 955, they devastated Bourgogne and were only finally defeated by the German king, Otto I, in 955, at the Battle of Lechfeld.
After this battle, the shattered remnants of the Magyars withdrew to the east, leaving behind only scattered traces of their people and racial mix, which soon became largely absorbed into the still overwhelmingly Slavic stock of the region.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE FIRST HUNGARIAN STATE
The first major convert to Christianity in Hungary was a leading noble, Duke Guza, in 975. His son Stephen I, was raised a Christian, and it was he who became the first King of Hungary - and the first to arrange the country into a formal state structure. Granted formal recognition by the Pope in 1001, Stephen made Christianity the official religion of the state, suppressing all paganism with typical Christian zeal.
Stephen I, the first King of Hungary. Recognized by the Pope as the formal ruler of that land in the year 1001, Stephen set about trying to enforce Christianity upon the largely pagan German and Slav population - who then spent most of their time till then fighting off the Asiatic Magyar invaders. When Stephen died in 1038, the country collapsed into anarchy which culminated in serious anti-Christian outbursts. This created the pretext the Christian Byzantine empire needed to step in and annex the country. This contemporary illustration of Stephen is however interesting in its own right. It shows very clearly that the Asiatic Magyar invasion had been all but wiped out, despite their name sticking to that land. Very few Hungarians are actually Magyars, as only a small percentage of that Asiatic race were absorbed into the White population.
MOST HUNGARIANS NOT DESCENDANTS OF MAGYARS
Although the original Magyars had been mixed race Asiatics and had been largely killed or dispersed by the German armies, small numbers remained in Hungary and other countries in Eastern Europe. Partly as a result of the absorption of these already mixed race Asiatics into a portion of the Slavic population in Eastern Europe, the Hungarians began to call themselves Magyars - although for the majority of Hungarians, this is not an accurate reflection of their racial roots. The original Magyars were Asiatic in origin, and the modern Hungarians are for the greatest part descendants of original Indo-European Slavic sub-racial types.
The term "Magyar" has therefore taken on a misleading meaning in many historical works - when reference is made to Hungary as being "Magyar" this is in fact a cultural term rather than a racial association with the original Nonwhite Magyar tribes.
Nonetheless, as a result of these continuous invasions and counter invasions lasting nearly 1,000 years, certain parts of the modern Hungarian population show slight signs of Asiatic ancestry - they are a minority and easily identifiable upon sight.
Hungary also has a significant amount of Gypsies - in fact the Hungarian gypsies are Indians who entered Eastern Europe in small numbers in wanderings around the time of the first Asiatic invasions. (A 1993 law allows the Gypsies - who at that stage were Hungary's largest minority - to set up their own self governing councils.)
ANTI-CHRISTIAN UPRISINGS
When King Stephen died in 1038 without an heir, the country went into a virtual state of anarchy. Anti-Christian pagan uprisings broke out and this, combined with typical Christian infighting over secession to the throne, created the opportunity for a new foreign invasion - that of the Byzantine Empire.
BYZANTINE INVASION
Although the Byzantines seized control of the Hungarian throne, they were themselves too weak to hold on to it for any sustained period, and Byzantine influence declined with the 1180 death of the Emperor Manuel I Commenus, who had initiated the Byzantine invasion in the first place. Hungary was then invaded in 1241 by Nonwhite Mongols - they only stayed a year and left after looting whatever they could.
FRENCH KINGS
With the death of the Hungarian king, Andrew III, in 1301, the last of the family claimants from Stephen I's line became extinct. In 1308 the French Charles Robert of Anjou secured election as the new Hungarian king Charles I, creating the first western royal family house in Eastern Europe. Charles I made a number of territorial acquisitions, including Bosnia and part of Serbia during his reign, and through his marriage to Elizabeth, the sister of Kazimierz III, King of Poland, he ensured the succession of his son Louis to the Polish crown.
FIRST OTTOMAN INVASION
It was during Charles I's reign that the Nonwhite Ottoman Turks first penetrated the southern parts of Hungary. Advancing slowly up the Balkans, the Turks were met in battle by a new Hungarian king, Sigismund, in 1396, and although the Hungarian army was defeated, the Ottoman advance was checked for nearly 50 years.
JANOS HUNYADI DEFEATS MUSLIMS AT BELGRADE 1456
The Turks regathered their strength and launched a new assault: Hungary was saved from complete annihilation by the military leader, Janos Hunyadi, who won renown for breaking the Muslim siege of Belgrade (one of Hungary's major southern towns at the time) in 1456.
Janos Hunyadi, a great White hero of Hungary, breaking the Nonwhite siege of the city of Belgrade in 1456. For this act and other deeds against the Turks, he is still remembered to this day as a national figure in Hungary.
SECOND OTTOMAN INVASION - 1521 AD
In August 1521, an Ottoman army under Sultan Suleiman I, captured Belgrade, the major Hungarian stronghold in the south. In 1526, Suleiman crushed the Hungarian army at Mohacs, where King Louis II and more than 20,000 White soldiers were killed.
After his army captured the city of Buda in September 1526, Suleiman withdrew from most of central Hungary. The Austrians then seized parts of western Hungary while other parts of the former Hungarian kingdom were either ruled by the Ottomans or local princes.
AUSTRIAN INVASION
For the next 150 years, Hungary was the scene of almost continuous strife, chiefly among three groups: the Catholic Habsburg (Austrian) Holy Roman emperors, who seized control over the western portion; the Muslim Ottomans, who controlled the central area; and groups of the Protestant native nobility, especially from Transylvania.
After expelling the Ottomans, the Habsburgs quenched rebel resistance in 1711, made religious and political concessions, and established a generally tranquil empire for nearly a century.
For nearly 150 years the city of Buda (today united with a neighboring town called Pest, hence Budapest) had been held by the Nonwhite Turks, and was an important center of Ottoman power in the West. Once the Turkish armies had however been defeated at their second attempt to take Vienna, the Austrian King Leopold 1, sent his armies into Hungary in conjunction with other White allies, and on 2 September 1686, crushed the Nonwhites in Buda itself. Here the leading White Austrian soldiers enter the city, literally riding over the dead Turks.
THE THIRD INDEPENDENT HUNGARIAN STATE AND UNION WITH AUSTRIA
By 1849, the ideals of social and constitutional reform, the mainspring of the 1848 revolutions in Europe, had reached Hungary, and in 1849, the Hungarian parliament proclaimed the country's independence from Austria. However, the Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph I, in alliance with Russia's Tsar Nicholas I, invaded and suppressed the Hungarian revolutionary government. In the midst of the suppression of another Hungarian uprising, Austria became embroiled in a short conflict with Prussia.
So weakened, Austria was forced to agree to a compromise with Hungary: the country could have its own legislature, language and constitution, but in exchange the two countries would share a common emperor.
This compromise created the Austro-Hungarian Empire which lasted until 1919.
THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE
With Austria and Hungary united, but still retaining their own individual constitutional structures, it was inevitable that the subjugated peoples within the borders of the Empire, particularly in Eastern Europe, would start agitating for similar independence, imitating the arrangement between Austria and Hungary. The result was that after a fairly short time, serious unrest brewed in the Balkan regions of the Empire - eventually this would lead to the First World War.
EXPANSION
The territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire expanded still further when the White Russians defeated the Nonwhite Muslim Ottoman Turks in 1878. An international congress (the Congress of Berlin) was held to divide up the last Ottoman possessions. Austria-Hungary was given permission to administer the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with other territories being divided up equally amongst the other powers and some becoming independent, with the most prominent of these independent states being Serbia.
Eventually the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to include the territories known today as Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, as well as parts of present-day Poland, Rumania, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The majestic Hungarian Parliament buildings, the largest in the world, on the banks of the Danube river which flows through the center of Budapest. The building dates from the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This picture was taken during the 1980s - the then Communist government added a large red star to the central steeple of the building, visible in the inset. The star was removed when Communism collapsed.
TRIPLE ALLIANCE
The rise of a united Germany had created a German power to match that of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Defeated in a short conflict over control of some German states, the Austro-Hungarian Empire aligned itself with the united states of Germany. In 1879, Germany and Austria-Hungary signed a formal alliance, joined by Italy in 1882. The pact was called the Triple Alliance.
SERBIA AND THE ORIGINS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
By 1903, the Serbian state felt strong enough to start trying to create a united Slavic state in southern Europe. Its first natural areas of expansion were the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, still administered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The latter, viewing with alarm the growing power of the Serbian state, formally annexed the two territories in 1908, to the great protest of Serbia and its ally, Russia. The subsequent assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in 1914 by a Serbian nationalist, led to Austria declaring war on Serbia which led to the outbreak of the First World War.
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE BREAKS UP INTO REPUBLICS
Defeat for the Austro-Hungarian armies on the battlefields of the First World War and mutinies and rebellions at home caused the Austro-Hungarian Empire to suddenly and dramatically break up. In October 1918, the Czechs proclaimed themselves independent in Prague; the Hungarian government announced its complete separation from Austria in November, and in the same month both Austria and Hungary signed armistices with the Allied armies. By mid November 1918, the last Habsburg Emperor had abdicated and within days, Austria and Hungary had declared themselves republics.
THE NEW AUSTRIAN REPUBLIC DEPRIVED OF BOHEMIA AND MOROVIA
When the Austrian Republic came into existence, it was dramatically smaller than the Empire from which it had emerged - a small region consisting of some 7 million people, devastated by the war and economically crippled.
The break-up of the Empire had deprived Austria of its major industrial regions, Bohemia and Morovia - the only realistic option remaining for the German speaking population was union with Germany, but this was specifically forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles which ended the First World War. A democratic state was then instituted in Austria in 1920. Political instability continued, culminating in a Communist riot in Vienna in 1927, when the main court building, the Palace of Justice, was burned down, leading to police firing on the demonstrators, during which at least 100 people were killed.
DEMOCRACY SUSPENDED UNDER ENGELBERT DOLLFUSS
Growing instability led the Austrian chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, to abolish the democratic constitution and to institute rule by absolute decree in 1933. In February 1934, the Communists were outlawed, and later in that same year all other parties - including the fledgling Austrian Nazi party - were banned. Austria officially became a one party state under Dollfuss. The repression of all political activities led to an attempted Nazi coup in July 1934 - which was unsuccessful, but which saw Dollfuss killed.
His replacement, Kurt von Schuschnigg, did not deviate from Dollfuss' policies, leading him into direct conflict with the now mighty Germany under Adolf Hitler.
UNION WITH GERMANY 1938 OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORTED
The continual instability within Austria provided the opportunity for which the originally Austrian born Hitler had been searching: in 1938, German troops entered Austria and the country was annexed to Germany under a regional government set up by the Austrian Nazi Party, with the region becoming known under its original name, the Ostmark. A plebiscite, adjudged by the League of Nations to be free and fair, was then held. A massive 98 per cent of all Austrians voted in favor of the union, or Anschluss, with Germany.
A poster from the referendum held in Austria urging Austrians to vote yes to the union with Germany in 1938. It reads 'People to people and blood to blood'. In the referendum, which was adjudged by the League of Nations to be free and fair, 98% of Austrians voted yes.
WORLD WAR II - SOVIET OCCUPATION AT WAR END
As part of the rising German Reich, Austria shared in the economic prosperity of that country, but also in its defeat during the Second World War.
The country was first occupied by Soviet troops, although it was later placed under Western Allied control, and a limited democratic government (limited because it ironically used Nazi laws to ban the Nazi party and to prevent publicly identified former Nazis from voting or standing for office) was instituted in 1946.
INDEPENDENCE IN 1955 UNDER RESTRICTIONS
The four Allies and Austria signed a State Treaty in May 1955, in terms of which the Austrian Republic was formally re-established.
The treaty prohibited union between Austria and Germany, denied Austria the right to own or manufacture nuclear weapons or guided missiles, and obligated Austria to give the Soviet Union part of its crude oil output for years to come.
In 1957, the issue of the territory of South Tyrol resurfaced. This German speaking region had been incorporated into Italy at the end of the First World War, and nationalists once again became active against Italian rule in the mid 1950's, which included a limited guerrilla sabotage campaign against Italian infrastructure.
Finally in 1970, a settlement was reached between Italy and Austria whereby a 1946 agreement was implemented guaranteeing the linguistic and cultural rights of the German-speaking Austrian population in South Tyrol.
ECONOMIC GROWTH AND PROSPERITY
Recovering well from the trepidations of the war, Austria reorganized its economy around state owned banks and infrastructure and soon became one of the most prosperous countries of western Europe, settling down to a period of peace and stability which it had never seen during its previous 1500 years of formal existence. Austria also maintained a very high degree of racial homogeneity through all these events - the major factor contributing to her ability to survive.
IMMIGRATION
Situated as it is at the "door" to Western Europe, and attractive in its own right as a destination for Third World immigrants, the issue of immigration into Austria has also come to dominate political and social life in Austria in the last quarter of the 20th Century, causing the rise of anti-immigrant parties such as the Freedom Party under Jorg Haider. The implications of these immigration trends are discussed in a later chapter.
AUSTRIANS IN HISTORY
The influence on world history by the Austrians has been marked. Many thought of as Germans were in fact Austrians, although the dividing lines between Austrians and Germans has always been sufficiently blurred to allow for them to be called Germans: racially speaking they are in any event of virtually identical stock. The classical composers Wolfgang Mozart, Franz Hayden, Franz Schubert and Wilhelm Bruckner, were all Austrians.
The most famous Austrian of all time however, still remains Adolf Hitler.
HUNGARY - THE FOURTH INDEPENDENT HUNGARIAN STATE
No sooner had Hungary declared itself independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, than a Communist Revolution, led by the Jewish Communist Bela Kun (whose real name was Cohen) broke out. Committing terrible atrocities, the Communists faced a popular anti-Communist rebellion which forced Kun and his communists to flee.
In 1920, the country was proclaimed a constitutional monarchy. This new government accepted a peace treaty officially ending Hungary's participation in the First World War, called the Treaty of Trianon, which greatly reduced Hungarian territory. The treaty stripped away about two-thirds of Hungary's territory, including Transylvania, Croatia, and Slovakia.
RISE OF HUNGARIAN NATIONALISM
Partly as a result of admiration for Adolf Hitler's Germany, and partly out of a desire to see the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Trianon overturned, Hungary was dominated by the rise of a nationalistic fervor during the years leading up to the Second World War, culminating in Hungary sharing in the territorial division of the state of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
A formal alliance with Germany followed in January 1939, when Hungary signed the international anti-Communist alliance - the Anti-Comintern Alliance - whose members included Germany, Italy, Japan, Rumania, Bulgaria, Spain, Denmark and Finland.
SECOND WORLD WAR
The invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany in June 1941, saw Hungarian troops supporting the German army in full combat roles, fighting on the Eastern Front with great distinction. During the war years, a fully fledged pro-Nazi government was installed in Hungary.
German defeat led to Soviet occupation of the country in late 1944, despite Hungarian SS units putting up a desperate and heroic defense of Budapest to the very last man. Many hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans and pro-German Hungarians fled Hungary at this time.
SOVIET ERA
Despite assurances to the contrary, the Soviet Union set up a pro-Communist government in Hungary, which although claiming to be democratic, was little more than a Soviet satellite state. Economic decline followed the Sovietization of Hungarian society, which saw the country being forced to pay reparations to the Soviet Union for its pro-German stance during the war adding to the country's struggling economic woes.
THE 1956 UPRISING
Popular discontent mounted in 1956, when public demonstrations against Soviet rule were encouraged by a similar outbreak of rebellion in Poland. Political revolutionaries proclaimed Hungary a neutral state, and the Hungarian uprising of that year began. Marked by a vehement anti-Jewish streak, the anti-Semitic feelings were heightened when it emerged that many leading Communist Party officials were Hungarian Jews.
The Soviet Union then intervened militarily, sending tanks into Budapest and crushing the lightly armed rebels. Hundreds of Hungarians were executed, thousands more imprisoned, and nearly 200,000 fled the country. A new Communist dictatorship was installed, and the punishment of rebels continued for years, instituting a reign of terror so penetrating that there was never again any uprising in Hungary.
Uprising! Hungarians turn to armed resistance in an attempt to drive out the Communists in 1956. Here groups of Hungarian patriots wave the Hungarian flag atop a captured Soviet tank in Budapest. The world stood by while a Soviet army unit attacked the city and after fierce street battles ensued for days, but in the end the superior Soviet military machine crushed the rebellion.
POST COMMUNIST HUNGARY
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and Communism in 1989, Hungary's constitution was changed to allow for multiparty democracy and the country's name changed to the Republic of Hungary. The transformation from Communism to free enterprise was difficult, and the Hungarian economy struggled to get back on its feet.
IMMIGRATION AND THE GYPSIES
Largely because of its geographical position, Hungary has served as a point of entry, along with other Balkan states, for waves of illegal Third World immigrants entering Western Europe. This development is discussed in a later chapter.
Hungary also has a large Gypsy population - estimated in 1992 to be around half a million. These dark skinned - originally Indian - elements have impacted slightly upon the Hungarian population.
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